A bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland could become a critical a part of UK infrastructure such as the M25, a Cabinet minister has said.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said on Thursday morning that the so-called “Boris Bridge” would boost connectivity for the regions and was “a good thing, not just for Scotland and Northern Ireland but for the whole of our economy”.
Mr Lewis said: “Big infrastructure projects, throughout history, have been sometimes controversial, difficult, but they’re the right thing to do,
“The M25 wasn’t a straightforward thing, but nobody could imagine life without it around London now.”
The bridge would cost and estimated £20 billion and is envisioned to run from Portpatrick, in Dumfries and Galloway, to Larne, in the province.
However, the route does pose some risk in its current state, the proposed site for the bridge crosses Beaufort’s Dyke, the UK’s largest offshore dump site for munitions ranging from small arms to high explosives after the Second World War.
The trench measures more than 50 km long and 3.5 km wide and could prove dangerous if a bridge were built over it. In 2004, Michael Fellows, a former Royal Navy diver, said there are “sporadic explosions two or three times a month” in the Irish Sea.
Mr Lewis said the Prime Minister had “always been very clear about his enthusiasm for bridges and determination to deliver improved infrastructure”.
He added: “More connectivity is good for the UK as a whole, and it’s good for the economy and it can deliver jobs, so I think it’s absolutely right that we do the work to look at the feasibility, the viability and how this can work and it would be an exciting project.”
Mr Johnson has previously spoken about a bridge to connect the two regions and strengthen the bond of Union. In 2018, The Telegraph revealed that Mr Johnson, then the Foreign Secretary, backed plans for a £15 billion bridge between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I think Government officials have done some work on this and they continue to work on a range of connectivity projects looking into, as the PM said, road, rail, air and cross-sea links between all four parts of the United Kingdom.”
Despite the project being popular with many, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, suggested that £20 billion would be better spent on “more important priorities”.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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